Jeff MacDuff, chief technology officer and co-founder of Kirkland startup Buddy, sat down with the Puget Sound Business Journal to discuss what it was like as a developer to leave a big tech company with a big paycheck, and start his own company. Buddy provides back-end analytics and monitoring for app developers. The Kirkland firm was one of the first two companies chosen to be part of Microsoft’s startup angel investment and incubator project, The Bing Fund, and has raised $1 million in venture funding from San Francisco-based Transmedia Capital.

What was it like for you and your co-founder to leave good jobs to start your own company? I left Microsoft in June 2011, and Dave (McLauchlan) left in September 2011. I was at Microsoft for 12 years, Dave was there for 11. We both left well-paying, good jobs. We left to do a startup, and we didn’t have paychecks for the first six months. It was really scary. Somehow we convinced our wives to let us do this. But we’ve been doing the startup thing for a year or so. We have 10 employees and are hiring six more right now. When we left, we did a road map and, to use a Microsoft term, we had a ripcord date. We said, “We’ll quit on this day, if by this date we’re not moving forward.”

How long did you give yourselves? We gave ourselves a year. I think nine to 12 months is fairly standard for startups (to get going).

So now that things are going, how does this compare to working for a big company; has it been an adjustment? I definitely make way less than I did at Microsoft. We’re hiring and things are going great (at Buddy), but I make a third of what I made at Microsoft. We don’t go out to eat as much, don’t go on big vacations. But if you’re going to bet on your startup, you do it because you believe in the dream. It’s a huge leap, and some people make it without planning for it. The smart guys plan for it.

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